Should I stop fermentation?

[Keiff]

Good day everyone,

Having a few batches of beer under my belt, I started my first batch of cider about a month ago. I made about 6 gallons using Whole Foods cider. I used an English ale yeast, White Labs 005 (OG 1.066). I got vigorous fermentation at 24 hours that lasted 4 days and then tapered off over the next couple of weeks (in a 68° environment, 72° inside carboy). After 3 weeks I racked it off of the lees into (2) 3 gallon secondaries (SG 1.004). This seems to have kicked off another round of fermentation. I'm aware of degassing behaviors, but there is thin krausen at the top of each carboy and I can see yeast clinging to the bottom 2 inches of the carboy's sidewalls.

It definitely tastes astringent and dry at this point, which is somewhat expected, but should I stop fermentation now or just let it ride out?

 

[BigFloyd]

It depends. How are you planning to stop fermentation? Are you going to want active yeast present in the cider for later carbonation?

I tend to serve my ciders up "still" (from a keg or transferred to bottles from the tap). I'll let them go down to around 1.004-1.006 (which is likely a stable FG using ale yeast anyway) on Nottingham. Cold crash the primary a week at 35*F, rack to the keg atop 2.5tsp of Potassium Sorbate dissolved into boiled water. Then you can back-sweeten/flavor without the yeast eating the newly-added sugars.

 

[Maylar]

Good day everyone,

Having a few batches of beer under my belt, I started my first batch of cider about a month ago. I made about 6 gallons using Whole Foods cider. I used an English ale yeast, White Labs 005 (OG 1.066). I got vigorous fermentation at 24 hours that lasted 4 days and then tapered off over the next couple of weeks (in a 68° environment, 72° inside carboy). After 3 weeks I racked it off of the lees into (2) 3 gallon secondaries (SG 1.004). This seems to have kicked off another round of fermentation. I'm aware of degassing behaviors, but there is thin krausen at the top of each carboy and I can see yeast clinging to the bottom 2 inches of the carboy's sidewalls.

It definitely tastes astringent and dry at this point, which is somewhat expected, but should I stop fermentation now or just let it ride out?

Let it ride. The secondary will eventually clear. And yes, there will be some lees but usually much less than the primary stage. Did you use any pectic enzyme?